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Eurogamer Expo 2012 – Rocksmith

RockSmith was not exactly the sonic boom at the heart of Eurogamer. With its small stand and cheap guitars, it made me think, “are Ubisoft really backing this gaming new concept into the European market, with all its f**king gusto?” Being a casual gamer and also some would say a fairly accomplished guitarist, this was a chance for me to indulge and experience, well… something radical?

Plugged in and ready to go, I could not believe that a Xbox and a Hercules USB to guitar jack lead were the only hardware required. It just seems so minimalist. How could one lead give a plethora of music to choose from, with different styles spanning from 1964 to current day?

To start my musical computing experience I picked “Slither” by Velvet Revolver. As I knew this song I thought I would p**s it, but my confidence was short lived as I achieved a mediocre 74% note accuracy. My competitive fire had been fueled, so second time around I opted for a tune I was not familiar with, ” I got mine” by the Black Keys. I was dropped into a quality mastered track and forced to follow on screen instructions whilst getting lost in music.

This game has a clever artificial intelligence that can adapt to your personal skill level and before you know it you are playing real guitar! RockSmith is racked with amp and pedal pre-sets to buy, that would cost thousands. Other in-game features, of which there are many, include: Guitarcade, Scale Runner …(learning scales) and Chord of the Dead (play a chord kill a zombie). These masses of mini games will help develop skills you never knew you had.

However ‘Riff Repeater’ is a feature of this game that lets songs be dissected into digestible learning chunks by verses and chorus for example, allowing you to progress and improve to the standard of a Zen master on guitar. Rocksmith is forged by the sensei of computer programmers and not by some f**k called Mr smith who collects rocks,this beauty gives people the ability to game and passively learn guitar. A true unlock-able achievement, potentially a great game.. kicks the s**t out of guitar hero either way!